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Groton Daily Independent
Sunday, Oct, 1, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 084 ~ 20 of 43
as a potential candidate to replace Rep. Michael McCaul — who in turn has been mentioned as a potential Trump Cabinet member. “There are going to be people who won’t vote for me. But I believe I can attract people in the middle ... those who want to see that there are people of integrity and character running, who aren’t afraid to stand up to the system.”
Though a conservative Republican and an opponent of abortion, Sarver voted for Hillary Clinton, “in large part because of (Trump’s) history with misogyny,” she says. While she’s always felt welcome in the Republican Party, Sarver has felt stymied by the lack of an infrastructure to recruit female candidates: “Ei- ther there’s not the desire there, which I don’t think is true, or there’s not the support and infrastructure.”
This election cycle, there’s an additional concern for Republican women in Congress. Several aren’t running for re-election, either because they’re running for of ce elsewhere, or retiring. That could bring numbers of Republican women in Congress “down to numbers like we have not seen,” says Lawless. “It’s going to be very dif cult for them to even maintain the numbers that they have.”
And that means a setback for women across the board — if you care about overall female representa- tion in Congress. Because even with all the energy on the left, Lawless says, “the Democrats will have to have a hell of a banner year in order to compensate.”
Price’s exit adds another hurdle to GOP health care push By JILL COLVIN and RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press
BRANCHBURG, N.J. (AP) — The ouster of Tom Price as President Donald Trump’s health secretary is yet another self-in icted blow for Republicans wishing to put their own stamp on health care — and the latest distraction for a White House struggling to advance its agenda after months of turmoil.
Price resigned Friday amid investigations into his use of costly charter ights for of cial travel at taxpayer expense. His exit makes it even more unlikely that Republicans will be able to deliver on their promise to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama’s law, even though they control the White House and both chambers of Congress.
“I think health care is a dead letter through the next election,” Joe Antos, a policy expert with the business-oriented American Enterprise Institute, said Saturday.
The health secretary’s exit capped a week in which a last-ditch GOP health care bill failed to advance in the Senate. Regaining momentum will be more dif cult now that the White House also has to nd a replacement for Price. That makes it harder to visualize how the administration and congressional Repub- licans can ful ll their goal of remaking the health care system along conservative lines, although Trump has said he’s con dent a plan can pass early next year.
Price — who Trump concluded had become a distraction — had been on the rocks with the president since before the travel ap. A former Republican congressman from Georgia, he proved less helpful than expected on the health care ght. Price played a supporting role while Vice President Mike Pence took the lead, especially with the Senate.
The health secretary’s departure — the latest in a list that now includes Trump’s chief of staff, national security adviser, press secretary and two communications directors — is also unlikely to end what has been a steady drip of revelations about potentially inappropriate travel on the part of Cabinet members.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has come under re for requesting a government aircraft to use on his honeymoon, while Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said he’d taken three charter ights while in of ce, including a $12,375 late-night trip from Las Vegas to his home state of Montana in June. The Environmen- tal Protection Agency’s inspector general has opened an inquiry into Administrator Scott Pruitt’s frequent taxpayer-funded travel on commercial planes.
The House Oversight and Government Reform committee has launched a government-wide investigation of top political appointees’ travel.
Trump ran on a pledge to “drain the swamp” in Washington and has taken pride in his efforts to reduce federal spending and negotiate better deals on behalf of American taxpayers.
In a memo Friday, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said all travel on government-owned,